School, Sleep, and Sweetheart Stephen

School has started. Not only does this mean papers, reading, quizzes and tests, it means a regular schedule, something I'm enjoying. I have a good semester lined up for me. Knock on wood, but I think I like all of my classes. There always seems to be at least one class that I have to just endure, but this semester, I think I'll actually enjoy every one. I'm taking a Western history class that isn't super exciting, but it's also relatively easy. I'm really learning a lot from my Church history course. I love my creative non-fiction writing class and am excited to practice my personal essay skills. For my capstone class, we are studying Hollywood's romantic comedies from the 1930's and 1940's; basically, I watch old movies for credit. My anthropology of American culture is amazing--no tests or quizzes, just class discussions for the whole semester and a final paper. So overall, I'm looking forward to my final semester.

Stephen is taking a lot of computer classes, a family finance class, and Book of Mormon. He has a lot of reading, but I really don't understand most of it. You'll have to ask him more about school.

School is the only new thing in our lives. I was doing really well at keeping the apartment clean until our dishwasher broke (the piles of dishes are waiting for the repair man to come). But I've stayed on top of laundry, so that's a plus. But with my semester as calm as it is, I'm finding I have enough time to keep on top of everything and still relax at points. Believe it or not, I'm actually ahead in my homework! I've decided that since this is my last shot at being a good student, I would put in extra effort to getting things done a head of time. I'm lucky that the workload has been lighter so far, because I'm sure it'll pick up soon.

I tried asking Stephen what I should write about. He said everything. Thanks, honey.

I will tell a bit about the date Stephen took me on just before school started. To preface, he and I have been talking about going to Ikea since we were dating. We thought wandering around looking at the furniture would be fun (and by we I mean me with Stephen humoring me). We talked about doing it several times, but something always came up. Finally, our plans came together well enough and after attending the Jordan River temple, we went to Ikea. There's something fun about shopping in our Sunday best. We wandered around the store, making comments on different decor and designs. I was relieved to find out we have a similar taste in interior design. Also, I was very proud of Stephen for coming up with honest opinions of things. He is really great at shrugging his shoulders when it comes to preferences. This can be really helpful when I simply want him to agree with me, or frustrating when I'm actually trying to get his opinion.

We stayed in the store until it closed and then decided to get some food before driving back to Provo. Stephen took me to Sonic for a burger. To add background to this, a few nights before our date, I had a dream where I ordered a burger but never got my order. I woke up with an overwhelming craving for one that lasted all day, almost to the point where Stephen offered to pick up some fast food on his way home from work. I told him it was silly to not eat the food I had purchased already and made dinner, disregarding my craving. On our date, Stephen was very good about making sure I had my burger. It's the little things that matter, after all. More so, I was impressed he remembered and complied to my dream-craving. Stephen must be practicing for pregnancy-Jane (No, I'm not pregnant, don't get any ideas).

On a less awkwardly-adorable note, I've been struggling sleeping again lately. No spasms this time, but instead, I've been having nightmares. They're always about different things (like not getting the burger I ordered), so it's not like I'm having a reoccurring fear or anything. Sometimes I die. Sometimes Stephen dies. Sometimes Stephen kills me. Car crashes. Family drama. Bad guys chasing me. Bad guys robbing me. Falling off of buildings and cliffs. Wars. A bunch of different things happen. I've basically have had at least one nightmare every night for the past two weeks. Some nights, I'll have three or four, waking up every few hours crying or yelling or panting. I have very vivid dreams, so it takes me a minute after waking up to discern between reality and nightmare. Stephen has been very good at waking up with me and holding me until I can calm down enough to go back to sleep.

This has been causing me to be extremely tired throughout the day. I feel bad for Stephen, who is also loosing sleep. I'm trying all the tips I can find on the internet and avoiding all the potential causes, but nightmares are something that's hard to avoid or fix, especially when it's not being caused by something specific. Yesterday, I was so sleep deprived and emotional, I was scared to fall asleep. Writing it out, I sound a lot like a three-year-old. Stephen gave me a blessing and tried to comfort me as best he could, but he eventually fell asleep. 

I laid awake for a few hours, thinking about everything and nothing. Around 2:00, Stephen woke up and prayed with me again. I finally dozed off around 3:00. But only getting a few hours of sleep has kept me yawning all day today. If anyone has any extra tips on how to avoid nightmares, let me know. I would take sleeping pills, but in the past, when I do and I have a nightmare, I'm stuck in my nightmare and have a hard time waking up out of it and discerning dream and reality. I've sniffed lavender and stretched and wrote my feelings and showered before bed and avoid certain foods and all that jazz. But really, I'm sleeping like a baby lately--waking up every few hours upset. Stephen jokes I'm practicing for parenthood (again--not pregnant). During the day, I'm fine, just tired.

Well, that's probably more of an update than you wanted to know. Our lives aren't very unusual right now, and because of that, they're not very exciting. But I would rather have uneventful than dramatic.